The Deacon

06/19/2024

Just days after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met June 12-14 for their Spring Plenary Assembly in Louisville, the bishops finally achieved the threshold needed to pass their national pastoral framework to guide ministries with youth and young adults.

Just days after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met June 12-14 for their Spring Plenary Assembly in Louisville, the bishops finally achieved the threshold needed to pass their national pastoral framework to guide ministries with youth and young adults.

06/17/2024

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Consecration to the Sacred Heart. Why did Pope Leo XIII entrust all of humanity to the heart of Christ?
https://thepriest.com/2024/05/15/my-heart-his-heart-all-hearts/

06/10/2024

When it comes to acedia, Father Michael Ackerman notes, “Dissatisfaction and sluggishness will inevitably come, but we can prevail if we offer up our sacrifice and remain stable in Christ.”
https://thepriest.com/2024/05/15/it-might-just-be-acedia/

06/07/2024

Loving like Mary: In summertime sorrow or celebration, Our Lady shows us the way. By Susan Kehoe.

For our family, summer is a time of anniversaries both sad and joyful. We grieve the death of parents. We celebrate the births of grandchildren. We rejoice as we recall our wedding day and the wedding day of our son and daughter-in-law.

06/06/2024

A Meditation on Mary and the Diaconate: Mary provides a perfect example as we exercise our diaconate. By Deacon Dominic Cerrato: https://www.the-deacon.com/2022/02/15/a-meditation-on-mary-and-the-diaconate/

06/03/2024

Leonard J. DeLorenzo is presenting a series of articles on devotion to the Sacred Heart. He begins with a backgrounder of the three revelations Jesus gave to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in the French village of Paray-le-Monial.

The character of the renewed devotion to the Sacred Heart is hereby disclosed: It is a means for making amends for the world’s crimes of callousness, offered as consolation for Jesus’ aching heart. To adore the Sacred Heart is to participate in making reparations for the scandal of ingratitude.

05/31/2024

Deacons! Time to answer the Question of the Month: What makes a good diaconate retreat? Email your 75-words or less answer to [email protected]. Thank you!

05/29/2024

Scott Weeman shares the mission of Catholic in Recovery and its many benefits of bringing people with a variety of addictions, compulsions and unhealthy attachments together in the Catholic Church to share faith, fellowship and freedom.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/how-to-be-a-bridge-to-recovery-and-sobriety/

05/28/2024

Teresa Tomeo shares that breaking away from routine on a “Big Bench” can provide a new perspective.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/striking-a-healthy-balance/

05/24/2024

‘It Is Time for the Lord to Act!’--Announcing the kairos of the Lord’s blessing, by Father Daniel Dozier: https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/it-is-time-for-the-lord-to-act/

05/22/2024

Deacon Stephen F. Miletic explains how the Institute for Diaconate Renewal awakens hearts to live in God’s love.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/from-gods-heart-to-ours/

05/20/2024

A new wave of grace is sweeping across our land. Read more about the launch of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an eight-week journey with the Eucharist from four compass points across the U.S.

From four directions, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes trace what organizers call "a sign of the cross over the nation," as pilgrims traverse a combined 6,500 miles across 27 states and 65 dioceses, through small towns, large cities and rural countryside -- often on foot, always with the E...

05/16/2024

Dr. Sean Tierney shares six time-tested recommendations to help us live healthy lives.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/being-a-healthy-servant/

05/15/2024

ICYMI: The Deacon Experience at the National Eucharistic Congress by Deacon Dominic Cerrato: https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/the-deacon-experience-at-the-national-eucharistic-congress/

05/13/2024

Pope Francis has issued a document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025.

"The time has come for a new Jubilee when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ," Pope Francis said in a document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025.

05/08/2024

How to Evangelize in the Workplace: Encouraging others to share their faith stories. By Peter Smudde. https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/how-to-evangelize-in-the-workplace/

05/06/2024

Deacon Dominic Cerrato responds a recent essay in America Magazine and says, “The discussion surrounding the diaconate, particularly its necessity as a transitional stage to the priesthood, must be approached with the hermeneutic of reform.”
https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/the-transitional-diaconate-is-integral-to-the-catholic-church/

05/03/2024

Deacon Dominic Cerrato discusses the Deacon Experience at the upcoming National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, July 17-21.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/the-deacon-experience-at-the-national-eucharistic-congress/

05/02/2024

Deacon Ed Schoener offers guidance on facing mental health challenges in our own lives and ministry.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/deacons-and-mental-health/

04/29/2024

Saint Catherine of Siena, whose feast we celebrate today, is one of the four women doctors of the Church. Learn a little more about Saint Catherine and find out who the other three women doctors are!

As Catholics, we are incredibly blessed to have the Communion of Saints, and each and every one of us is encouraged by the Church to find a patron (or many) from among their number. In her latest In Focus, Colleen Pressprich shares how she knows from experience how helpful it is to have someone to j...

04/26/2024

Breaking away from routine on a "Big Bench" can give a new perspective. Teresa Tomeo writes: https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/striking-a-healthy-balance/

04/24/2024

Being a Healthy Servant: Six time-tested recommendations to grow in health. By Dr. Sean Tierney: https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/being-a-healthy-servant/

04/22/2024

On this Earth Day, read more about Pope Francis' encyclical 'Laudato Si'':

As David Werning concludes his series on the Church’s most important documents of the past 150 years, he writes on Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which the pope makes an appeal to every person living on Earth to join the conversation about how to care for our common home. Werning, i...

04/19/2024

Karl Schultz offers some “interpretive, homiletic and didactic precepts that will help deacons organically engage, exposit and illuminate the text in both homilies and pastoral care and formation contexts.”
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/02/15/homily-exegesis-for-deacons/

04/17/2024

Deacons and Mental Health: How to face mental health challenges in our own lives and ministry, by Deacon Ed Shoener. https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/04/15/deacons-and-mental-health/

04/15/2024

In a heartfelt call for greater inclusivity in the Church’s synodal process, Deacon Dominic Cerrato is drawing attention to the notable absence of the diaconate in the recent 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/catholic-deacon-calls-on-the-church-to-include-the-diaconate/

04/12/2024

As we celebrate the Easter Octave, Susan Kehoe refers to St. Paul and tells us: “The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation. A time will come, when Jesus returns, when death and suffering will be no more.”
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/02/15/my-peace-i-give-to-you/

04/09/2024

Deacon John O’Maley offers some pointers for inviting younger men to consider the permanent diaconate.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/02/15/how-to-address-the-churchs-biggest-challenge/

03/25/2024

A permanent deacon in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, whose then-teenage son was molested by the priest he once served alongside, is now excommunicated after leaving his ministry, because he formally left the Catholic Church. https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/after-sons-abuse-louisiana-deacon-and-family-join-anglican-church-incurring-excommunication/

03/22/2024

Stephen Fahrig examines Deacon Dominic Cerrato’s “Establishment Hypothesis,” which provides a new understanding of the origins of the diaconate and the unity of holy orders.
https://www.the-deacon.com/2024/02/15/deacon-cerratos-establishment-hypothesis/